A wrap about confectionery

As demand for sustainability grows, so does the pressure on the confectionery industry to adopt more eco-friendly packaging processes and materials for sweets and snacks. There are, however, many sustainable packaging solutions available for chocolate, biscuits, etc, which will be on display at interpack in Düsseldorf from 4–10 May 2023. Visitors will get to know the latest developments and trends in the sweets and snack industry. Especially in halls 1, 3 and 4, the focus will be on innovative processing and packaging developments for the confectionery industry.

For manufacturers of confectionery, the demand for sustainability means that packaging processes need to be more flexible and efficient. There is a growing trend towards automated production and packaging processes, and their sweet delicacies more often come in a sustainable wrap. For example, confectionery producer Fazer now uses a light, dispersion-coated cardboard from Metsä Board for its advent calendars. The company said that switching to the new material has reduced the use of plastics by 1200 kg each year compared to the previous PE-coated cardboard. The advent calendar is now fully recyclable, and the lightweight material used has also cut its carbon footprint by a quarter.

“Virgin fibre cardboard offers the necessary safety for advent calendars, especially where chocolate and cardboard come into direct contact. Our dispersion-coated cardboard also has neutral sensory properties, which means the taste of the chocolate is preserved for a long time,” said Olli Haaranoja, Sales Director at Metsä Board.

Speeding up the chocolate wrap

An output of 250 bars of chocolate per minute is the rate of a new wrapping machine, marketed by Sacmi as part of the brand Carle & Montanari. It also processes new eco-friendly packaging materials. The machine is the result of a new approach to machine construction at Sacmi Packaging & Chocolate, which goes beyond traditional mechanical concepts and makes it possible to package sensitive products at high speeds and with constantly high quality. The wrapping machine produces chocolate bars with an inner and outer wrapping, where the inner wrapping is sealed on three sides while the outer wrapping is made of precut cardboard or paper. Sensors attached to the system monitor the consumption, work hours and efficiency indicators. In case of inconsistencies within the packaging process, the machine automatically issues an alert message and opens a remote connection to the service department.

A newly developed multi-style wrapping machine for chocolate truffles by Sacmi also processes eco-friendly foils. Using a top twist configuration, it wraps up to 500 chocolate truffles per minute, including sensitive products or those with irregular shapes. It is said to be the first wrapping machine with hybrid technology and not only uses mechanical, but also powerful energy-efficient servo drives. The wrapping machine is also equipped with real-time maintenance functions. As soon as the ideal settings for each motion have been defined, live diagnostics can ensure that deviations are immediately noticed and downtime can be avoided.

Going circular

In a shared project, interpack exhibitors Sabic, confectionery manufacturer Mars and recycling service provider Landbell have recently developed flexible packaging for a snack bar. The monomaterial used is made up of certified, circular polypropylene from the Trucircle portfolio by Sabic. The circle starts with collecting mixed old plastics, coordinated by the Landbell Group. The mixed material is then changed by a thermal anaerobic process into pyrolysis oil, which serves as an alternative raw material for a novel PP polymer, which is suitable for contact with food. From pellets made of this substance, manufacturer Taghleef then makes BOPP films.

Chocolate with a twist

The northern European confectionery manufacturer Orkla has recently invested in a new packaging machine especially for chocolate products with different folding varieties by Theegarten-Pactec, to increase packaging capacity at the Finnish production site Vaajakoski. The investment was preceded by a lengthy testing phase.

“For us it was the perfect opportunity to test our packaging machine CHS first under real conditions in confectionery production. An endless stream of products, constant operation, different packaging materials and product qualities, cleaning and maintenance work during operation or even difficulties like a shutdown of processing systems — there is much that cannot be fully covered by a simulation. In the end, such tests are indispensable to give a new development the final touches and bring it to market readiness,” said Daniel Schibur, Head of Sales at Theegarten-Pactec.

Alongside general function tests, special focus was placed on the two-track feed of the machine — a specialty of the CHS. The challenge was to divert a portion of the products from the endless product stream of the main belt into the two-track feed of the CHS while at the same time making sure that an even exchange happens between the two tracks.

Each of the two feeding tracks must continually receive 900 products per minute, which are then combined in the packaging process into a one-track stream of 1800 products per minute.

An integrated camera system and effective placement of sensors now constantly check the product stream arriving at the main belt. This is designed to ensure that the two product streams in front of the machine do not differ by more than five products. The machine can be flexibly switched to nine different folding varieties: double twist, protected twist, top twist, side twist, tin foiling, bottom fold, side fold, Vienna fruit fold and — right now — envelope fold.

Theegarten-Pactec has also partly acquired the Turkish mechanical engineering company Makrev Packaging. The company based in Istanbul produces clocked wrapping machines for chocolates and jellies, as well as entire automated and feeding systems.

Inspecting snacks and sweets

As with everywhere in the food industry, foreign bodies are absolutely not wanted in sweets or snacks. Modern inspection systems are therefore designed to ensure safety for today’s packaging machines. For example, a new X-ray inspection system by Mettler-Toledo was developed to detect foreign bodies in small, individually wrapped snacks and sweets at high production speeds. It allows for cost-efficient inspection right after flow wrapping or sealing individual products. The compact inspection system is equipped with an integrated ejection mechanism and supports operation at belt speeds up to 120 m/min. This makes it possible to adjust X-ray inspection to the high speeds of many tubular bag or sealing machines, which are used in the confectionery industry for packaging individual products, the manufacturer said. Even very small foreign bodies are detected with a high degree of accuracy. And as individual bars rather than entire sales units are checked right after leaving the tubular bag machine, and ejected if needed, there is also a saving of costs.

For more information about the interpack event, visit: https://www.interpack.com.

Image credit: iStock.com/Tatsiana Sergeenko